Wave or study music

There had been a major hype some time ago on using the so-called 'wave' music (alpha, beta, delta waves mainly) that are tuned to resonate with your own brain waves to help you sleep or study etc etc. 

I bet there are plenty of websites dedicated to promoting these type of music and truthfully speaking, some of them are pretty nice to listen to - they sounded a bit like epic music but more repetitive :P

Honestly speaking though, I experienced a time during my university years when I just couldn't absorb anything that I've studied and it's definitely not helping that I was distracted by some other stuff as well during that time. I'm not sure whether it worked or not though, but I'm certain that writing notes out onto a paper that I've folded into a brochure format (for carrying the notes around easily) works for me :)

So anyway, what made me to think of this old and dusty draft in my blogger is because well, I've submitted an application for a position on AsapSCIENCE's team (I really hope I get it but I don't really have a lot of faith... to be honest. They did say that they will only accept remote working ONLY if that candidate is exceptional... I'm just... pretty much average).

However, since I've already written this outline, I thought you guys might be interested to know more. I did some digging, mind you, but I haven't really dug deep enough yet. I still need to verify the many cited journals on those sites that markets study music products (like CDs and stuff), but so far, from what I've dug up, it's not looking promising. And oh, if anyone's wondering, everyone can cite any journals they want for any article, but whether the results are really compelling and that the experiments and researchers are credible (or that even the journal itself is credible)... that's another question lol.

Enjoy!

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Does the so-called study music actually help improve your studying?

Students are always desperate to find a shortcut for studying… nobody likes to study for exams and will usually leave it to the very last minute or get easily distracted by the tinniest of distraction like a lizard on the wall. Thankfully, there are plenty of study aids available that actually help students to study, like mind mapping, and also some that are at the border of quack science and true science. A fine example of these sort of ambiguous ‘study aid’ is the so-called study music that reportedly uses certain frequency music to trigger the production of beta waves from the brain. They claim that this method can help improve studying and even treat ADHD.

The ‘theory’ is that this sort of music produces two different frequencies from your left and right headphones. For example, a frequency of 60 Hertz goes in one ear, while a frequency of 40 Hertz goes in the other ear. They claim that the difference in cycles (which is 20 Hertz, in this case) will result in musical beats that are in the beta pace and the brain will start to pulse in step with it. This, in short, is called binaural beats.

But why beta waves? Beta waves are scientifically associated with a mental state of being wide awake, which, when you think of it, is extremely useful if you have to burn the midnight oil. In addition to excessive caffeine intake, you will be so awake that you can sprout wings (like Red Bull). Beta waves are also connected to concentration, which is exactly what you need if you want to try to ace tomorrow’s exam with only 1 night of study. There are also several other study music that uses gamma waves (since it is associated with cognitive learning), alpha waves (associated with relaxation – they claim that you’ll need to have a relaxed and open mind in order to absorb new information) and theta waves (associated with creativity, for when you needed to get that 7000 creative writing essay done within a night).

Furthermore, music has always been known to be able to stimulate certain response in the human body.  Try watching a horror movie with the sound off (muted), then try watching the same horror movie with the sound on – notice the difference? It’s not as scary anymore. In fact, if you watch any movie or video with the sound off, the movie won’t be as good or even make any sense.

Despite the fact that brain wave entrainment is a real phenomenon, it is only useful in investigating how the brain works. There are absolutely no scientific proof and theoretical basis that it has any long-lasting effect on brain function. In fact, there may even be some deteriorating effect of constant exposure to brain wave entrainment, just so you could cram stuff the night before the exam. My advice? Don’t waste your money on these sorts of ‘study aids’ and hope for a miracle… study in advance and not at the very last minute! And of course, study smart!

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So, what do you think? Is it really that useful? Is it pseudoscience or real science? What's your experience with using these sort of wave music?